Finger nail cleaner



1, 1965 A. G. MILLER 3,203,433

FINGER NAIL CLEANER Filed June 18, 1962 M INVENTOR.

ATTOR/VZYS.

United States Patent 3,263,433 FINGER NATL CLEANER Albert George Miller, 25 1E. Cedar St., Chicago 11, iii. Filed June 18, 1962, Ser. No. 263,180 2 Claims. (Ci. 132-7545) This invention relates to a finger nail cleaner of novel design for efficient cleaning of finger nails, the design being such that it is conveniently operable when manipulated by either hand to clean the finger nails on the other hand.

One of the principal features of this invention in a finger nail cleaner lies in the fact that the finger nail cleaning edges are provided at one end of an elongated body which is to be held by the first three fingers of a hand, thereby leaving the thumb free so that the thumb may act as an easily controlled and manipulated guide to steer the finger nail, which is to be cleaned, across the nail cleaner. This feature permits employment of a wholly novel, and heretofore unknown, technique for cleaning of finger nails. It has been found that with the new technique, the cleaning of finger nails is thorough and easy, is accomplished with very little manual pressure, and may be executed rapidly without injury to the fingers whatsoever, despite the fact that the cleaning edges of the device are relatively sharp.

Thus, one object of this invention is to provide a finger nail cleaning device which is constructed and arranged to be held by the fingers of one hand in a position lying crosswise of the fingers while leaving the thumb of the one hand free to engage and guide a finger on the other hand, while effecting relative movement at a natural angle between a cleaning edge of the device and the finger nail being cleaned.

Another object of the invention is to provide a finger nail cleaner in which an elongated body is provided with a V-notch at one end, the portions of the body adjacent the notch being so shaped as to provide a pair of tines, one of Which is adaptable for cleaning the fingers of the right hand and the other for cleaning the fingers of the left hand, and said elongated body being constructed and arranged to be held by only the fingers of one hand, while leaving the thumb of the one hand free.

Still another object is to so shape the body portion adjacent the V-notch and the tines as to provide cleaning edges of acute angular shape, but with sides of some extent as distinguished from sharpened edges so that the sides of the cleaner do not gouge the portion of the finger immediately beneath the finger nail during the finger nail cleaning operation. More particularly, the body portion is provided with a V-notch which is beveled on the undersurface of the body, and the top surface of the body adjacent the V-notch is concave to provide the desired acuteness or sharpness of the nail cleaning edges of the V-notch.

A further object is to provide on the body at the end thereof opposite the V-notch a loop to receive the third finger of the hand, thus providing a finger mount which assists in the gripping of the finger nail cleaning tool to facilitate manipulation thereof.

Still a further object is to provide a portion of the upper surface of the body roughened for finger nail abraiding purposes.

An additional object is to provide a modified form of construction in which the cleaning tool is pivoted to a nail file that serves as a protector for the sharpened cleaning edge of the tool when not in use.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds and the features of novelty which characterize this invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.

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A preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a full-scale side elevation view of a finger nail cleaning tool embodying my invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a bottom view thereof;

FIG. 4 is a perspective View thereof showing how the elongated tool is initially held by the fingers of the left hand, while leaving the thumb of the left hand free;

FIG. 5 is a view showing use of the tool in the new technique of cleaning a finger nail, attention being drawn to the illustrated use of the thumb, of the hand holding the tool, as a guide for the finger whose nail is being cleaned;

FIGS. 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are enlarged sectional views taken substantially on the respective lines 66, 77, 88, 99 and iii-1t? of FIG. 2 to show the cross-sectional shape of the tines of the tool; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a modified form of the invention.

Referring now to the drawing, the reference numeral lil has been used to indicate in general the body of the finger nail cleaner, which body is elongated as illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 and substantially rectangular in cross-section as illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8. At one end of the body 10 a finger-receiving loop is is provided. The upper surface of the body it), or at least a portion thereof, may be roughened, as indicated at 14, in the nature of a finger nail file for finger nail abraiding purposes. T e under surface of body it which engages the fingers holding the tool as in FIG. 4, is preferably smooth.

The other end of the body it has a V-notch 16 formed therein which provides a pair of finger nail cleaning tines l7 and T9 for the left-hand and right-hand finger nails, respectively.

The V-notch 16 is beveled, or relieved, on the undersurface of the body it and the beveled surfaces are indicated at 13. The beveling, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, produces sharpened inner, or cleaning, edges on the V-notch 2.6. At the same time the upper surface of the body It) adjacent the V-notch is concave, as shown at 2t), to make the angle at the inner edges even more acute and thus relatively sharp for good fingernail scraping and cleaning action. The outermost, or most lateral, edges of tines 1'7 and 19 are relatively blunt, as seen in the drawing.

The lateral cross-section of the tines, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, shows that the surface 20 is at an angle sloping downwardly and outwardly from the sharp inner edges, thereby producing greater acuteness along the sharp inner edges of the V-notch than if not so sloped. With further reference to FIGS. 6 and 7, and also FIG. 8, it will be noted that the outermost edges of the sectioned parts are blunt and rounded, so as to avoid injuring the finger under the fingernail during a fingernail cleaning operation, such as is depicted in FIG. 5.

The elongated body ill of the cleaning device is designed to be laid across the middle joint of the three fingers of the hand, to afford grasping thereof and so as to stabilize the tines l7 and. 19 extending outwardly of the fingers. In the preferred form, the other end of body id is provided with a loop 12 for encircling the ring finger. Then, with the cleaning device firmly supported by the fingers of the one hand, the thumb of the one hand holding the cleaning device is brought over to a position closely adjacent the outermost tine, as, for example, tine 19 in FIG. 5. The finger 28 whose nail 39 is to be cleaned is then positioned, as in FIG. 5, abutting the said thumb, and the tine 19 is inserted below the nail 30 at the far side of nail 3d relative to the said thumb. Then, the pressure of the fingers and thumb, being in opposite (lb directions, effects controlled relative movement between the tine 19 and the thumb, thereby carefully effecting cleaning the under side of nail 30 while the tine 19 and thumb move closer together.

As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 4, the loop 12 is located offset from the plane in which the main portion of body 10 is located, and such offset is in a direction, relative to body 10, opposite to the direction in which the concavity 20 faces and the general direction in which the tips of tines 17 and 19 point. This permits of comfortable assembly of the loop 12 on the ring finger while body It) lies against the other two supporting fingers with the tips of tines 17 and 19 exposed and positioned for etficient utilization thereof.

In cleaning the nails of the left hand, the tool is associated with the right hand in a reverse manner to that illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 and the tine 17 is used.

FIG. 11 shows a modification in which an elongated body member 10a has substantially the same characteristictics at the nail-cleaning end with respect to the V- notch 16a, as in the tool of FIGS. 1, 2, and 3. A sheet metal blade 32. is pivoted thereto by means of a screw 33 and a knurled nut 40 whereby the tines of the tool may be protected by rotating the body 10a to the position indicated at 1% by dot-and-dash lines. The blade 32 may be roughened, as at 34, for fingernail abrading purposes, and pointed as at 36 for additional nail-cleaning purposes, if desired. The member 10a during use may be locked at any convenient angle relative to the blade 32 by tightening the nut 40. In the event the body 10a is provided with a finger loop, similar to element 12 of FIGS. l-3, there will be no interference with blade 32 since such a finger loop would be offset in the direction opposite to the side of body 10a overlain by blade 32.

While there has been shown and described a particular embodiment of this invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the invention and, therefore, it is intended in the appended claims to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. In a fingernail cleaner, an elongated body having a V-notch in one end thereof to provide a pair of tines, one for the left hand and one for the right hand, said notch being beveled on the undersurface of said body to present acute angular edges along the inner sides of the notch at the upper surface of said body, said upper surface being concave downwardly and outwardly of said acute angular edges, and a loop projecting downwardly from said body at the opposite end thereof to receive a finger of the hand during use of said fingernail cleaner, said loop being offset from the plane in which the main portion of said body is located.

2. In a fingernail cleaner, an elongated body defining a gripping portion with spaced upper and lower surfaces adapted to be gripped and a tine portion at one end of the body, the tine portion having a width at least as great as the greatest width of the gripping portion, said tine portion having a wide and deep V-notch in one end thereof to provide a pair of tines, one for the left hand and one for the right hand, with the tips of the tines located at the longitudinal edges of the tine portion of the elongated body so as to space the tips apart as far as possible commensurate with the width of the tine portion of the body, so that during use in cleaning a fingernail by one tine there is no interference by the other tine, the upper and lower surfaces of the tine portion being respectively shaped to define concave and convex surfaces which intersect at the tips of the tines, to define upwardly directed tips, and each tine being beveled on its lower surface to present acute angular edges along the inner sides of the V-notch at the upper surface of the tines to define elongated sharpened operative edges on the tines.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 869,706 10/07 Hamilton 13273 2,480,446 8/49 Carlson 13273 FOREIGN PATENTS 90,772 4/59 Netherlands. 141,337 9/20 Great Britain.

RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

LOUIS D. GEIGER. Examiner. 

1. IN A FINGERNAIL CLEANER, AN ELONGATED BODY HAVING A V-NOTCH IN ONE END THEREOF TO PROVIDE A PAIR OF TINES, ONE FOR THE LEFT HAND AND ONE FOR THE RIGHT HAND, SAID NOTCH BEING BEVELED ON THE UNDERSURFACE OF SAID BODY TO PRESENT ACUTE ANGULAR EDGES ALONG THE INNER SIDES OF THE NOTCH AT THE UPPER SURFACE OF SAID BODY, SAID UPPER SURFACE BEING CONCAVE DOWNWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY OF SAID ACUTE ANGULAR EDGES, AND A LOOP PROJECTING DOWNWARDLY FROM SAID BODY AT THE OPPOSITE END THEREOF TO RECEIVE A FINGER OF THE HAND DURING USE OF SAID FINGERNAIL CLEANER, SAID LOOP BEING OFFSET FROM THE PLANE IN WHICH THE MAIN PORTION OF SAID BODY IS LOCATED. 